What ever happened to Hypnosis?

[LiveInTheDream]

Just an observation I had last night...it seems self-hypnosis as a means of achieving lucidity has become a thing of the past. There are plenty of old discussions from last year and beyond, but nothing recent that I could find, or at least, nothing helpful. I bring this up because even though (as you can see in my signature) I mark my LDs by the most common induction techniques, I'd feel safe guessing that 50% or more were the result of some form of self-hypnosis that convinced me I'd lucid dream before I ever even lay down to go to sleep! The seeming forgetting of hypnosis, therefore, is a sad thing for me. I've run short on good resources, and some of my old ones have become too over-used to have their effect any more (although last night I did manage to dig up something new on the internet, which resulted in a great lucid dream that you can read about in my DJ). Most of these resources were DV-user created, so obviously it's up to us to keep this technique-assist alive. Yes, that's correct. I'm not talking about hypnosis as a method of its own, but rather as an assist for other techniques, similar to how binaural beats or subliminal audio assists another technique. But hypnosis is, in my experience, far more effective than those other things, and deserves more attention than it has been getting. Am I alone in this? Are there still those out there that have created some hypnotic assists for lucid dreaming? I'm sure many LDers would benefit if we could bring this back!

[zhineTech]

youre not alone, but i dont have any new materials for you. i would like to try going to a "real" hypnotist someday and have them hypnotize me for LDing...

[faceonmars]

Technically we go through a form of self-hypnosis every night before sleep as we enter into the Theta brainwave state. Try recording yourself affirming that you will awaken in your dream. Play the recording at bedtime... or try out some of the free downloads at my site. Just click on Tinnitus and then free downloads. Here is my take on Hypnotism in general

[Clyde Machine]

I didn't realize it was ever gone, though I haven't seen anything discussed on DV or elsewhere lately about hypnotism for inducing lucid dreams. How have you pulled it off, LiveInTheDream?

[vmenge]

Speaking about hypnosis, I was using a self-hypnosis book called "Instant Self-Hypnosis, Hypnotize Yourself With Your Eyes Open", reading the lucid dreaming script to myself about twice a day for a week. Never worked Does anyone have any good hypnosis audio files (for free of course) that they would suggest?

[LiveInTheDream]

How have you pulled it off, LiveInTheDream? Last night it actually started out as not being lucid dreaming-specific. I just looked up some generic tests for susceptibility to hypnotism, and when they all worked on me, it gave me the confidence that I was more in control of my brain than the other way around, so if I wanted to lucid dream, I could just decide to. So I did and went to sleep, and bingo! Lucid dream. (If anyone else wants to try it, the test that works the best for me goes like this: fold your hands, and then stick your pointer fingers straight up. Now spread them as far apart from each other as you can. Ok, there is now a magnetic field in between your fingers, and no matter how hard you try, you cannot stop them from being drawn together. Convince yourself of this. See what happens? )

[Clyde Machine]

I haven't been able to convince myself of such a thing. I believe the muscles in your fingers will get tired after being forced to their maximum distance from each other, and will move toward their equilibrium, which happens to be closer together than the point at which I'm supposed to be holding my fingers. Got any other tests, something more believable and dealing with self-hypnosis than testing if my fingers get tired? Yup, the skeptic in me just jumped all over my keyboard. But I would like more realistic hypnosis tests.

[LiveInTheDream]

Well, I doubt it works as well through text as hearing someone saying it to you aloud, for one thing. For another thing, you could always reverse the direction of the 'magnetic field' and say it's pulling your fingers apart instead of pushing them together. I've seen people do it that way, too. Doesn't work on me during the day, but at night I'm much more susceptible. You do have to be willing to be hypnotized for any of this to work, though, of course.

[Clyde Machine]

The will to be hypnotized is there for certain, I'd love to try something new and interesting like this, but this particular test strikes a "not buying it" chord with me. Still, any discussion of the topic is welcomed by me and of course any other tests are welcomed as well.

[LiveInTheDream]

this particular test strikes a "not buying it" chord with me. Right, well, that test certainly doesn't take hypnosis to its limits anyway...I guess I just must be among the really susceptible group since it works on me My point with the test was mostly just to prove that it is possible for those who might have been skeptic even of that much. The real 'hypnosis scripts', from what I have heard, take around 30 minutes to complete, and it's heavy duty stuff, much unlike the finger test. I was hoping to find such a script for lucid dreaming (preferably already on MP3, but I'd be willing to make a recording myself if I had the script to go from), but so far--no luck. I'll keep looking, but if anyone else knows of any such resource, I'd love to hear about it!

[vmenge]

Here you go, I attached a Master Induction Script and a Lucid Dreaming Script. You're supposed to read the Master Induction one and then the Lucid Dreaming one, both aloud to yourself. It's only supposed to work on first try on people with aptitude to being hypnotized, normally you should read the Master Induction and the Lucid Dreaming script about once a day everyday to after a while see any effects. Well, good luck, post your results later

[LiveInTheDream]

Here you go, I attached a Master Induction Script and a Lucid Dreaming Script. You're supposed to read the Master Induction one and then the Lucid Dreaming one, both aloud to yourself. It's only supposed to work on first try on people with aptitude to being hypnotized, normally you should read the Master Induction and the Lucid Dreaming script about once a day everyday to after a while see any effects. Well, good luck, post your results later Wow, cool! Thanks! Will definitely give these a go tonight

[Clyde Machine]

Reading through the first page I image of myself doing this and enjoying it very much. I'd throw in my own text to make it more personal even though that may turn out to be counter-intuitive.

[vmenge]

I found it really fun and interesting to do, for about three times. After a while it's hard to not find yourself just reading without visualizing it properly

[LiveInTheDream]

Yeah, it would probably be better to have 5 or so different scripts that you could keep switching up to prolong the effects. Or I guess Clyde's personalization idea might do the trick, too. I tried it last night without any lucids this morning, but like you said, most people would have to repeat it a few times before it worked on them, so I'll just keep trying. I had to get up early this morning for work, which might have had something to do with it. Maybe I should wait until my next day off to try this again.

[ReachingForTheDream]

Never even heard of people using hypnosis for induction. It probably wouldn't work for me, I'm too skeptical (never had a FILD or MILD ever xD). But the scripts look really cool and interesting, so I might try them out anyhow.

[vmenge]

There's no being skeptical about hypnosis once you really know what it is in it's core. Television and Movies promote mass misinformation about what hypnosis is. Hypnosis is even recognized as a field of medicine by the US Medical Association (or whatever it's called).

[LiveInTheDream]

Yes, unfortunately, hypnosis is widely misunderstood...most people would think of hypnosis as taking control over someone else's mind (thanks to all the TV shows and movies that give it this image), but the fact is, it really is an example of the control you have over your own mind, since you must be willing to be hypnotized in the first place and you can come out of it on your own free will. Most of the time you'll only do things while in hypnosis that you'd be fine with doing under normal circumstances (or, even better, something you really want to do but just couldn't because of some mental barrier you'd developed). So, ReachingForTheDream, I'd suggest you study out hypnosis and find out what it's really like, and see if that alleviates your skepticism Oh yes, and I am going to try the script again tonight, since I am off work tomorrow and can sleep however long I need to.